by Ok, I promise I'll try not to write too much more on this topic, as it does seem to be dominating lately. However, according to a New York Times article, it seems that 1/3 of the items that were withdrawn and reclassified since 1999 from the National Archives in the Staes did not contain sensative material. The remaining 2/3 could technically be justified but often held old secrets that are known. It begs the question, why were they withdrawn then? I have no answer for you.
gov info
Pssst…
Well, I just can't seem to get away from secrecy issues, so much so in fact that I've created it as a new tag. I blame part of this on account of my government publications duties. Here's some more about the National Archives and the CIA (from the Chronicle Of Higher Education, may need a subscription). The archivist, who claims he only found out about the agreement recently, agrees with what I said in my previous post: such an agreement goes against everything they stand for. He has stated that he will not be entering any secret agreements in the future. Update: Here's a link for background info on NARA and MOUs. Be Spacific also has a good posting on the recent couple of secrecy issues at NARA.
Papers from Jack Anderson have been donated to George Washington University. Great, except that the FBI want to look at them first and take out any classified documents. According to CNN, his family has refused to let the FBI look through the papers.
Secrecy
The National Archives in the States has admitted to removing items from their shelves and secretly reclassifying them. While I blogged on this before, the shocking part of this is to me that they would agree to secretly remove items that has formerly been available to researches. In a profession that is supposed to uphold access to information it seems counter-intuitive. The memorandum was obtain through a Freedom of Information request and has since been posted on their website. At least they are admitting to their acts now.
Review
Well, it's that time of year here. I'm getting ready for my annual review. It's a great way to look back at the year, examine what was accomplished and what has yet to happen. I've managed to accomplish quite a bit this year but it's rather overwhelming when I consider the number of things I still want to accomplish.
Not only are there a number of things to actually get done, there's lots to contemplate in the ever changing world of librarianship. Top on my list of considerations:
The state of government information – There are so many issues when it comes to government publications, especially electronic gov pubs. We're creating an e-gov pubs working group to try to get a handle on some of the issues.
Library 2.0 – yes, more library 2.0. I'll definitely keep following this and consider how we can apply it here. Luckily, we've got a couple of experts in this area already.
Information Literacy – this almost goes hand-in-hand with another concern of mine, liaison work. I think it's incredibly important to reach out to both faculty and students in the form of liaison work. This year the library's trying to get more involved with student orientation and I'm playing a role in it. Hopefully our relationship with both students and faculty will become stronger over the next year.
The year ahead holds many challenges and opportunities. Bring it on!
Free Information
There has been a lot of free information lately. ArchiveGrid has been discussed in a number of library blogs. This site allows free access to historical documetns from around the world.
Statistics Canada has announced that they will make all electronic publications found on their website (http://www.statcan.ca) free as of April 24th.
Exciting news from my library. We’ve hired Jeffery Trzeciak as our new UL. His presentation was Library 2.0 oriented. Can’t wait to see what we do!
Secrecy Abounds
The New York Times (may require registration) reports that the American government is apparently reclassifying documents which were previously offered to the public. One wonders how this can be done, since researchers already have copies of many of the documents. This news comes after a recent article that stated that the US government was releasing the largest amount of documents by the end of the year.
Government documents have been taking a beating in the past few years. Electronic versions of documents provided nightmares for gov docs librarians. The issues in preservation and access are astounding and yet more and more gov pubs end up as online versions only. The Bush administration is the most secretive administration yet. Gov pubs librarians are trying their best to address the problems but it seems an uphill battle. I could rant on about the problems facing gov pubs in the next while, but sufficit to say, I’m looking forward to my upcoming conferences (CLA, ALA), both of which have gov pubs tracks. It will be nice to talk about these issues with others who have the same concerns. I’ll keep you posted of any solutions on the horizon.
Delinquent
Yes, I have been delinquent. I was previously preparing for my first professional conference presentation. I survived! I presented “How Do I Teach That? Connecting Government Documents and Information Literacy in Academic Libraries” at the OLA Super Conference in Toronto.
Conferences are a great way to rejuvinate passion for my work. There’s nothing better than being able to talk to others who understand and love what you do too. It is heading up to conference season and perhaps I’ll see a few of you at CLA or ALA. There are some great programs lined up. Now, to find the time and the money…
Internet Archives
Internet Archive has introduced a new subscription service that allows you to create your own archive called Archive-it. This has some wonderful applications for government information, which is increasingly finding its way online and can move off of it just as easily. It is aimed at libraries and institutions and allows you to archive up to 100 pages. This may be an easy way to see if your institution wants to step into the world of web archiving in a fuller manner. Check it out at: http://www.archive-it.org/learn-more.html